#within the context of the piece i guess it COULD be important but like. idk

[saintslaughter]

i checked my ao3 for the first time in a little while and i had a new comment that i was excited to read but i gotta ask. what did they mean by this

[frobin]

about sbs family,i noticed some take it very seriously(I don't exactly,but idk if it's to be taken or not).I saw some trying to make sense of franky granny,i never saw that sbs like''in the story,brook is the grandpafigure of nami and sanji is her bro''or smthng like,the original context was for the lil familysong,I saw more like roles of a teatreplay,jinbe for me is anyway very dadfigure to luffy instory,if in the context of a play,franky would get the funniest nosense role i guess,the granny

Hey Anon, thank you very much for your message!

I am one of the people who take it kinda seriously... it would be dishonest if not.

I used it as an argument as long as Franky and Robin had been the parents. I can't just suddenly say "Oda is bullshitting us" because it is not in favour of my OTP anymore xD.

So yeah... can't take that "Jinbe and Robin are the parents now!" any less serious.

I think the one you mention with Brook as grandpa and Sanji and Nami as siblings is the One Piece Theatre? One Piece Theatre were Omakes, short, funny stories. There are a couple different ones and I think two are called "Family Time" There are two Short-Comics done early on by Oda.

Back then it was

Grandparents: Brook - Robin Parents: Usopp (mom) - Zoro (dad) Children: Franky - Sanji - Nami - Luffy Pet: Chopper

Like One Piece Party, the Theatre could not be taken serious!

Later Oda said that the Mugiwaras as Family would be Parents: Franky - Robin Children: Zoro - Sanji - Nami - Usopp - Luffy - Chopper (Vol. 48)

Even later he added Brook as Grandfather (Vol. 50)

Back in Volume 48 he even added: "My answer would currently be something like this." which made me think that Jinbe would become the Uncle. But alas...

I guess seeing all of that as just some randomness and as roles like for a theater would be best but I can't help myself trying to understand what Oda was thinking while deciding that...

Like I can find reasoning within myself (I could consider that an Uncle is not "close enough" for a family and only direct bloodlines are important enough - which would still be weird for a Manga where a lot of families are NOT blood related - as a reason and making Jinbe a Grandma would not be very fitting - but then again you can have TWO Grandpas - so the logical conclusion would be to make the silliest and also older Character a grandma... but...) but I just want to know what is true. Because again, I take SBS seriously, I consider that stuff canon.

No one has to though!

[matan4il]

Hey, its me again. Do you have any analysis/meta regarding s3x01, specifically about the party where buck cough up blood.

Hi Nonnie! And thank you so much for feeling comfortable enough to send me another ask! ^u^ That makes me so happy!

So, I had a look through my older meta posts and the closest thing I have to that is this bit of meta (which I have not yet shared on Tumblr 'coz no gifs yet), which isn't directly about the party, though it does mention it and how scared Eddie must have been to see Buck almost dying right in front of his eyes for the second time in so many months. I didn't elaborate on that, but I guess a part of why I didn't is I already felt my condensed meta for seasons 1 through 3A was getting a bit much. In hindsight, I think I probably could have written so much more. IDK if you'd like to hear more about it. I'll throw a few words out there and do let me know if it's good or if you'd like more?

So I freaking loved that party! Buck was so happy and that boy deserves joyful moments. And then Eddie comes out to hug him like it's so clear that it would be him first before anyone else out of the firefam, even though Hen and Chim have known Buck for longer, even though Maddie is there and she's his actual family, even though Bobby is there and he outranks anyone else in the team plus he's the one that the guy who injured Buck was going after plus he's kind of Buck's father figure plus it's his freaking house that the party is being held at, yet not only is Bobby not looking to be the first one to hug Buck, he actually pushes Eddie in first. It's almost like an unspoken acknowledgment that Buddie are each other's significant other.

And then the hug itself. I just love it, they're both grinning so wide and throw themselves into it, but even after it's over, Eddie doesn't let go of Buck's hip, and the way he holds him there, that hand that just lingers in that intimate spot... kjashdfsjfhs It gets to me. I love all of their hugs, but I think that's what gives this hug a slight edge over the other two.

I have to also mention Chris, that sweet card he made for Buck and how important that moment is, since it's the first time that we sort of see that the connection between him and Buck might have been formed through Eddie, but they have their connection, too. Chris could have just come along and attended the party, like the kids of Buck's other teammates, but nope. Chris made him something extra, something he didn't have to make or was expected to and which expresses the affection he has for Buck. I love it! And that this moment happens within the context of the 118 as a chosen family celebrating together makes me feel even more that it's a moment when the show is subtly telling us - these three are a chosen family as well.

Lastly, I'm gonna finish with what I started... Eddie saw Buck almost dying. We know he did. Not just because he was at the party, but because the show took a moment to zone in on him doing a double take when Buck starts coughing up blood. And this happens on the hills of Buck injured by the blast, caught under the firetruck, and the show doing the same thing, giving us a close up on Eddie's reaction. I just think this is very significant to a lot of what they'll go through together, especially in 3A. I have no doubt that Eddie was really scared after almost losing Buck twice. At the same time, it's so meaningful that the party is where we learn that Buck and Ali have indeed broken up because she couldn't handle his risky job after only seeing it jeopardize his life once. Eddie is scared for Buck too, but despite seeing Buck's life in serious danger, more than once, he's still there. Eddie chooses this life, with Buck. He even trusts Buck with his son, and in 414 we learn to what a degree. No one will ever fight for Chris like Buck would and no one will ever love and appreciate Buck like Eddie does. These two are simply right for each other and the party is a big piece of the puzzle that shows us how they do...

I hope this satisfies you, Nonnie! And sorry for the length! xoxox

[macklives]

session 92 end (bye 413...)

this session was so long but so fucking hectic what the fuck

im going to try and slim it down to its bare essentials rather than go on a full rant because im pretty sure i want to make a post later on about vriska’s characterisation (not anything about me liking her/disliking her, just an analyse on her life really, so it wont be too bias because thats not the point of an analysis. i also want to do one on aradia, been meaning to for a while... hmm... damn i havent done much analogies lately, and i THINK the last long post on a character i made was about davesprite??? so its been a fucking while. that being said, ill leave a lot of details out for this end of session notes so i dont just repeat myself later on. rather will keep to plot points here and then make character points in another)

alright

first we had a page or two where aradia confided in nepeta about her being dead which means nepeta is the only one to know this revelation. im pretty sure aradia confided because there was no other way around it, since nepeta was her server player, so it was inevitable. either way, aradia still put her trust in nep, which means, if you think about it, nobody else knows and nobody else ever will. and considering aradia asked nep to keep it a secret, it probably wont get explored by others until MAYBE later on, whenever its plot relevant, so everyone will be in the dark about it for a while which ill have to remember for future dialogue and scenes with aradia in them

then we met vriska

which, yes, is a meme. i may not have been on a lot of fandom platforms, but you cant escape some of the stuff that goes around the internet. even if you dont know undertale, im pretty sure you know of sans. or komaeda if you have/havent seen danganronpa. its just.. the memes, ya know? ive heard from many sources of the “vriska did nothing wrong” quote (even through mbmbam which??? WHAT) but since i didnt even know what it meant, i never explored it so then i never knew it was a homestuck thing. imagine my surprise...... i think even at the time, i wouldnt have known what homestuck was either honestly so it wouldnt even matter. i only recently learned about the fandom.... uhh, maybe half a year ago??? yeah, august, so my knowledge was slim but vriska is a thing ive heard before, which still shocks me

goddammit

anyways back to her

so her intro was something, we pretty much found out she likes DnD (a FANATIC in fact) and feeds her lusus the flesh of living trolls. which is fucked up. but i wont get too much into detail about that until i make a post about her life on alternia and the consequences of such. or maybe just alternia in general...?? or *both* heheheh but i feel i need more information before i go off on a tangent about that

then we met??? white text dude?? who is a major asshole but an asshole with insults that hURted, to think i felt bad for VRISKA when that happened. woah.

i said before, but... karkat, he cant really hit deep because his insults are just HIM and his way to express himself. like some people find it natural to just go “FUCK YOU” to show emphasis on a point, and thats just karkats way. he may do it so aggressively that it takes you a second to realize what he said, but usually i dont take anything to heart whenever he spurts out some insults. ive progressed to the point where whatever he says, is just “karkat” and not him trying to be actively mean. rather, its now funny whenever he does say anything SOMEWHAT creative, dude has an imagination that goes on for miles

but vriska?? she IS trying to be a bully, you can tell. but i feel theres something much more to that. like shes trying to prove herself and her “blueblooded” demeanours or whatever the hierarchy is. she doesnt want to show emotions so she makes herself a barrier by being mean is what i can gather from her conversation with kanaya. im pretty sure youre not supposed to understand her until its pointed out and rather see her as an “antagonist” at first, but yeah, her insults are more pitiful than anything and i also cant take her too seriously. i may not like her as a person but her character is interesting because you cant always have the goodie two shoes as the protags. it doesnt diversify the characterisation so i like vriska as someone who makes the plot work and it becomes more interesting since you have someone that makes it harder for the main crew to progress. a happy-go-lucky adventure with no trouble and no turnabouts would be boring in a way. so having a character like vriska, or like this new white text guy, it makes you stop for a second and realize oh shit okay, here’s where shit CAN go wrong and WHY. and i do especially like it when these bastards of characters somehow have more depth than being the “bastard characters”. kinda humanizes them in a way. doesnt mean you have to LIKE them continuously, but theyre humans (trolls whatever) in the end and every person has their own story whether its for better or for worse

for example, i like her being placed into the story, along with white text, by how its all leading to this “accident” and is slowly showing us hints on what happened, but in the end, it wont be until later that we know the full story. even if it was in the past, it apparently is very vital to the plot and shapes how the characters act in the future, so important aspects like that are to look out for. and usually they only occur when theres been some trouble within friend dynamics. so without these bastard of characters, plot wouldnt grow AS strong and i often keep that in mind when i explore a story.

anyways, I HAD A POINT TO THIS: so vriska and karkat are characters who are yes, mean, but it seems to be their personality, and the way they either show emotions and convey feelings (karkat) or make a barrier so they DONT show emotions to produce vulnerability (vriska), white text guy seems to mostly be out to be an asshole. he told vriska she was useless to sum it up but im not too sure if this is one of those “first dialogue” to mould out a bias opinion before we even get to the character themselves, but judging by how vriska and karkat played out, he surely means something bad and i dont know how to explain it. but i cannot base anything off from one piece of dialogue. i dont even know what else to call him other than white text guy so...... ill just leave that out for now, until we finally get his introduction

though, i do wish to mention, and will expand on, im not wrong when i say karkat and vriska are similar but in different context. sorry if youre favourite is karkat and you dont like vriska, or vice versa, but uhhhh their introductions are so similar its uncanny and the way they’re portrayed is the same except one is more on crack about the meddling, while the other is angry about the meddling. similar to how it was with karkat, we were introduced to vriska talking with someone we knew (tavros) whom she obviously didnt like, so obviously, from her point of view, she wanted to be menacing. like how karkat was menacing to jade because she wouldnt listen to his point... he got angry, so he lashed out. but us, the readers, didnt know that. we thought “oh god its this asshole” until we made it further in the story and started to warm up to karkat. it may not be the same with vriska, she may be a bully regardless, but you cannot tell me we moulded a bias towards her character as we did when we first read karkat. theyre both truly mean to other people, maybe both for different reasons, but i do want to point out the similarities and not leave that out. im pretty sure andrew basically gave us a conversation that formed our opinion of a character right off the bat rather than go into depth of WHY they did it, and how they are naturally without the conditions of the game. which, you can also see with vriska when she conversed with kanaya. andrew started off with a character who only appears to speak once, and makes you judge them from first appearance alone, without any explanation as to why they said what they said and how they are with other characters, let says. so you assume they were simply a rude character. now look how karkat turned out. so im guessing in homestuck, the first impression should never be the opinion you stick with until MAYBE 5 more conversations with that character (each one different)

OKAY done with the vriska introduction, now to slutquius

yes, hes kinda weird, i have stated that many times. i have no idea what to say about him other than he likes porn, he likes centaur dick which just so happens to be his lusus as well and if that isnt a red flag idk what is

he also likes his lusus milk, right from the udders of his guardian

fun times, fun times

my opinion of equius kinda.. differs. which i should really put in place the “dont judge by first impression” rule, because at first i thought he was rude with, then i thought he was hhh okay, because i understood why he was being so protective over nepeta and her team placement, since the people she was going to play with WERE dangerous. but if you think about it, both sides will probably put you in danger. it just depends on which ones you confide in more to protect your back rather than those which would cause trouble on purpose, in my HONEST opinion. so equius was a little overdramatic on that part, but i got what he meant. he was on the blue team and he didnt want to leave nepeta alone without him on the red. but then this session happened. and he went back to being weird again because of the whole porn thing, especially being so open about it like dude chill youre 13. but the thing is, then i felt bad for him because hes basically touch starved. to say that he could break anything he touches, i doubt people would go up to him for hugs. in fear they would be crushed to death by a simple hug. so im guessing hes rather lonely and doesnt really know how to interact because of this. so i felt sad that he had to live a life where he needs to be careful of everything he touches so it doesnt break randomly. see? poor dude. but then things got weird. and im pretty sure hes a masochist. so my opinion on equius is a fucking cosine graph

which brings us to the final point:

gamzee and equius’ conversation

i dont even know.....like.........gamzee was unaware that equius was using him for his own power play roleplay, right? gamzee knew it was a roleplay but it had had some.. idk.... obvious sexual implications? and i bet gamzee didnt really know that? he thought they were only venting out through a simple roleplay and trying to get closer because he originally thought equius hated him, considering equius flat out said “i hate you” and gamzee went “you tell me everyday and im okay with that” so.. gamzee probably wanted only to get closer to equius so he helped out his little problem which.. thats so sweet but i feel bad he was coerced into something he didnt get, especially since he was innocent enough to go along without knowing equius’ true gain

anyways, equius was getting off with the hierarchy thing. considering he’s “lower” than gamzee, and gamzee is surprisingly ...high on the spectrum??? so equius wanted gamzee to boss him around, because it felt only natural to him since he’s the “inferior one” and gamzee is The Big Man. like i get that, but it was written in a way that was so uncomfortable, that i wish i didnt. equius is just a weird character... hes not BAD per say, but hes... hes something alright

but im really liking gamzee. the two things which struck me in that one conversation, was the “i dont get why we should dictate people by the colour of their blood, i just see people as people” piece of dialogue and “i cant go around pleasing just everything so its alright if you hate me”

thats... so good, idk. i really liked that. i also really liked when kanaya said “youre dangerous but dangerous people are needed and are important because it shapes you” like <33 my fucking heart

god homestuck may be a tad on the weird side with some of its characters but it surely knows how to create great lines of dialogue

and that concludes the long 4 hour session i did, hope you all enjoyed it

with that, i rest

[parachutingkitten]

Imma Rant About How Pixal Deserves Better (cuz what else is new)

I love Pixal. That’s no secret. But the writers need to make up their minds about if they want her to be a member of the core cast or not, cuz it’s driving me nuts. Now, this is not a ‘pixal needs to be a ninja!’ post, cuz no, she doesn’t. Her being samurai x is an awesome and coherent move story wise. Moving from samurai x to the water ninja was a natural transition for Nya (even if I personally didn’t like the execution that much, but whatever- that’s a rant for another time), but if they tried to do it for Pixal, it wouldn’t make any sense. This doesn’t mean I’m against Pixal having the potential for ice powers- I wrote a fic about her reaching her true potential for goodness sake- but that also isn’t what this is about. This is just a post about her being a member of the team, because the writers have been playing her with only one foot in the door for four seasons now, and it’s NOT working. 

Remember in season 1 and 2, when Nya was samurai x? Yeah, sometimes she would stay behind, but most of the time, she was going on the missions with them. She got to interact with all of the boys. When the ninja got captured, she got captured. When the Ninja went on a large scale mission, she went with them. Down. Out of the Bounty. She worked with the Ninja, beside them, not in a totally separate B plot with just Wu. Her role in the team was admittedly different, but it was still equal. But now, samurai x, as Pixal, is the designated ‘stay behind’ character. And it’s played like this big sacrificial move, and she does some cool things while the team is gone but the one big problem with it is THE TEAM ISN’T THERE TO SEE IT! So it doesn’t expand her standing within the team. It doesn’t give the satisfaction of a big heroic moment, because it’s a B plot! The one purely Pixal centered episode EVER was the one in season 11 where she fights the preeminent. Guess what? The only team member there is Wu, it’s a b-plot filler episode, and it’s never brought up again. 

And yeah, that’s the only Pixal focus episode in the whole series. She’s a side character in season 3, she’s non existent in seasons 4-7, season 8, her reveal episode is cluttered with baby Wu/Harumi drama, and she’s not even physically and mentally there until the last few seconds of the episode (that rewrite is on it’s way, promise), season 9 she’s drowned out by the EMs, season 10 she has half an episode to shine where, once again, she ‘stays behind’ in a b plot with 0 character growth, which leaves the one episode in season 11 where she is the true 100% focus, and even then... it’s ‘stay behind’ b plot filler. Pixal hasn’t even been given a decent character arc... ever! She has like 2 (and a half) arcs total in the whole series. Season 3′s ‘getting a heart and falling in love’ arc, Season 8′s ‘I am samurai x arc’ which they don’t even explore that well, and then arguably, if you really squint, season 4′s ‘becoming part of Zane’ arc, but even then, that’s pretty much discovered and wrapped up in one episode. Complain all you want about Cole not having his own full season, but at least he’s got himself several well written, entertaining, A-plot, multi season arcs. The ‘Holy crap I’m a ghost’ arc, the ‘frustration with my best friend’ arc, and the ‘I am a father now’ arc. Say what you want, but he’s a main character of the show, and one of the go-to characters the writers love to throw stuff at, with distinct relationships with his cast-mates. 

Pixal’s interactions with the team all feel so forced. Like the writers want to include her, but don’t know how to. Mainly cuz they don’t know how to write her when she’s not around Zane. Her scenes with Zane are drop dead adorable! And... I suppose her alone time with Wu was...okay. But it’s like when she’s not alone with Zane the writers forget who she even is. That season 11 episode? They play her weirdly innocently. I’m sorry, that’s not Pixal at all. It’s been established since season 3 that she’s our grounded, painfully realistic, sass robot. Where is this “does that mean you’re not mad at me?” stuff coming from? Thing is, later in the episode, she’s acting like herself. So... idk what happened in the middle there. But because they don’t know how to write her in the context of the team, most of the time she’s reduced to standing around in the background. Even in fight scenes. Why? WHY?! You obviously want to include her? How do you do that? Maybe, I don’t know, HAVE HER INTERACT?!

Seriously, this isn’t that hard to fix. You split up the team all the time. Just have her go on a mission with Jay. Or Cole. Or Nya. Or anyone other than Zane. Play it for laughs. Play it seriously. Play it for those sweet sweet wholesome vibes. Idk. Just have her do something! These characters have stuff to bond over! Jay has a fascination with Borg industries in general, that would be fun to play off of. Cole and Pixal both have a pretty DEEP untouched emotional baggage. Lloyd and Pixal both have this sort of “not part of the pilot cast, joined later and never really integrated 100%” vibe going for them. Kai and Pixal have beef! This could be one of the great Ninjago rivalries! Nya and Pixal can bond over samurai x, that’s a total gimme one! These characters have relationships ripe for building, but they just DON’T TALK TO EACH OTHER! 

Every main character. EVERY MAIN CHARACTER has at least one episode (but likely many more) dedicated to them, where they do something real cool, single handedly save the day or something, and the whole team comes and hugs them and says “wow, great job!” “You’re an important and valued member of our team!” “This is why you’re great!” and... I just want one of those for Pixal. Please. Pretty please. Just so she can have some validation. Just so that the main cast can acknowledge her existence. And as trivial as this one episode may seem, I think it’s really important. She needs her big ‘save the team’ episode. She never had a sort of “true potential” moment when she really proved herself, and I think that’s really what she needs. Think about how good the Royal Blacksmiths episode was for Cole. He spills about some of his baggage, each of the team members is forced to interact with it, and try to understand it, and in the end they all work together to help him get past this rough patch in his life, and he ends up looking like a boss and saving the day in the process (also note, probably the best group hug ever in Ninjago history). Now, you could argue that since she doesn’t have a element, her being samurai x could work to give her that episode. Great. Cool. That makes sense. But Pixal doesn’t have a “true potential” episode- she has a “reveal” episode, where the ninja have to fight her cuz she’s evil and she doesn’t end up saving the day, Nya does. You see why even though it’s technically “focused” on Pixal, it isn’t meaningful at all to her character?

Thing is, I wouldn’t even be that mad... if she were a Skylor type character. I like Skylor as much as the next chick, and say what you want about her screen time, but at least she has a defined role within this universe! If Pixal was Zane’s cool robot gf/ samurai x - secondary protector of the city - that popped up for a cameo once in a while and played a larger role in seasons that merited her, I would be fine with it! Borg isn’t a big character, but he gets appropriate screen time, some seasons more than others, and he still feels like a cared about piece of the canon! This would work pretty well for Pixal too! Would I like this better than her being an active part of the main team? Hell no! I think her being on the team is the right way to lean, but as of right now, she’s just doing nothing of substance. I’d rather the screen time she has be meaningful than have her as a token nothing in the background of every episode.

That’s my main point here. Either start respecting her as a character, or stop pretending she’s on equal footing with the team. We already know season 12 isn’t gonna improve on that. The ninja go into the video game world and Pixal stays behind. Granted, Zane doesn’t go either, so maybe we’ll get some good content. But again, it’s the B plot, and with Zane. Nothing we haven’t seen before. (I could keep going about how the show has been pushing Zane out of the picture even back in season 3, but again, a rant for another time) 

Anyway, this rant pretty much sums up why most of my fanfic is Pixal-centric. It’s a character the writers just REFUSE to write for but has a decent amount of screen time, so there’s a lot of possibilities. Might do another rant about the whole ice powers thing. Idk. Just needed to get this out. thanks for reading :)

[mysticgalaxychaos]

"In depth" analysis (commentary) on Mcs vs Yaha dialogue (part 3, finale)

It's finally over! You can now resume scrolling on your dashboard in peace!

*Bonus. Another weird quote by our friend when the Mc dies in battle. Don't fully understand it, but kinda relieved his "beauty" is his sin... Thinking about again though, he does call his ability to feel sexual pleasure his "luster" so we don't know what "beauty" could be a eufemism for...

Can we all take a moment to appreciate how FRIGGIN GORGEOUS Yaha looks here???????? Like I know he's dying, and bleeding, but he just looks so cute! Actually Yaha always looks cute but this one looks extra nice

This is actually a very sad moment. Poor guy's dying and here we see what Yaha thinks of himself. He recognises he has changed and that he was "damaged". I guess loosing his ability to feel **SeXuAl** **PlEaSuRe** was really dertrimental to his personality. I mean that kinda thing really changes someone, you know!

What can I say... They tried, they really did. They tried to make this sad with him calling himself broken and everything. And it would have all been fine and honestly, pretty sad if it wasn't about LOSING YOUR ABILITY TO FEEL SEXUAL PLEASURE!!!!! That was your "luster"????? Like... What?? Is there something I'm missing??

To be real, we have lots of evidence and we do hear later on from Urick that Yaha was changed a lot by this pact deal. I can't imagine exactly why and the context isn't super helpful, but the best explanation I could come up with was that his ability to seduce anyone he wanted coupled with his inability to feel pleasure when actually engaging with said people might have made him desperate or left him feeling deprived. It's kinda contradictory. You are given the ability to do something you (presumably) really enjoy, with whoever you want without any limitations but you are never allowed to enjoy it again. I guess that's what made him so weird about everything

This line legit upsets me, not only because of how bad I feel for Yaha, but mostly because of Urick's reaction. You'll see it right bellow so all I'm gonna say regarding Urick is that it's usually the person who lives who says "I'll never forget you"...

Can we all just admire the amount of love and dedication Yaha has to and for Urick? If you really think about it, he's had a crush on him since they were young, he held onto that for so long, he got rejected, he sacrificed a part of himself (yeah, I've been making fun of that, but truth is that it was), he suffered because of it, he changed, according to his own words he "was damaged" by this, he has seemingly received nothing from Urick apart from semi harsh kinda aggressive comments and even after all of this, all he has to say was that he's happy he can see him again. He just holds nothing against him... Now I'm not saying he's been the best person to Urick (after all there has to be a reason he's so cold towards him), but even in his last moments he still expresses his love... Of course you could argue that this isn't realistic and that it is probably very unhealthy and obsessive, but I really do find this very heartwarming

*Rip cute baby elf*:'(

This scene and Urick's reaction reminded me a lot of Rei during Yuda's death in Hokuto no Ken. I found it so funny how Yuda was there dying, confessing his love, pouring out all of his feelings and Rei just stood there kinda... Not reacting at all. The difference being, In Hokuto no Ken, Yuda had pretty much ruined Rei's life and even then, Rei seemed pretty upset by his death when he actually died. Here we have two people who were friends from childhood, who for some reason (probably less serious than murdering your parents and kidnapping your sister) fell apart. And after the heartfelt things Yaha said, THIS is what Urick has to say!!!

"Well, I know you devoted your life to me and have been in love with me since forever and I also know you sacrificed a part of yourself to be with me, but... Ugh... You shouldn't have made that pact deal, huge turn off"

What the hell, Urick???!! As much as I like you, this is an awful way to respond to your friend's death! He didn't even touch him or hug him or something! Come on! The guy's dead! You can at least show him some love now! This is such a cold response and it's even worse since it's coming from Urick who's normally so friendly... It does makes things supper complicated too. So far we've had a pretty consistent narrative of what transpired (or might have) between Yaha and Urick and here come these final scenes to just completely contradict everything! But we get the one piece of info; the fact that it was the pact deal that ruined the relationship.

1000000 iq

NOWE!!!! HAVEN'T YOU BEEN PAYING ATTENTION TO ANYTHING YAHA WAS SAYING???

That's were we get direct confirmation that Yaha changed, probably after the pact deal. Also we learn it was that change the ruined the relationship. But here's the weird thing, people change, what could have possibly happened that was so different to drive Urick so cold?

WHAT??? WHAT? WHAT? WAT??? WHAT??

This line just shatters my kyoka suigetsu! I just don't know what to say! If we take this as true, the game has just retconed everything it's told us! Either that, or Urick has just NO IDEA what was going on all these years AND payed 0 attention to what Yaha told him during the fight! Or, Urick is lying because his ex, Yaha borderline exposed their relationship and he is just so much in denial about his sexuality that he doesn't want anyone to even think he could be gay

But srsly WHAT THE HELL??? Urick! Yaha didn't want to "make a name for himself in the knights"!!! He wanted YOU! How do you not know this! This just changes so many things! Their relationship goes from "ex friends with something extra happening in between that was maybe not entirely liked by both" to "man completely oblivious to best friend's feelings even after he literally confesses them". Now this is possible, since Yaha did ask Urick if he knew about his feelings for him. It is also possible that this entire time we had (which we did) Yaha's version of events with Urick not knowing any of this, but this begs the question, if Urick didn't knew up until now, why isn't he reacting differently to Yaha's death. If I had just learned my former best friend was in love with me, I wouldn't be sitting there looking at him die. Also if that was the case, what was it that drove them apart if not Yaha's attempt to get with Urick? Could it be that he was just too preoccupied with sex from that point on? But then why is Urick so mean and cold? This doesn't seem like it was just them drifting apart, something big happened to get Urick to this point.

More than anything, this line doesn't match up with any previous information we know...

"Um... Yeah Nowe, Yaha just... Wanted to be popular within the nights! All of that stuff you heard... That was nothing! Nothing at all! He's just... Well... What? Why I hate him? I hate him because... Uh... He's just... Too... Well that's not important, but it DEFINITELY isn't because he started fucking everybody! DEFINITELY NOT!"

Bonus: this is the single BEST piece of trivia I have ever seen about a character, EVER!

So this thing is over! Are you supper happy about it? I bet you are! Anyway now I'm just gonna go ahead and link the videos I used for these screenshots and... Idk bye!

[light-of-being]

06.01.19 (On Detachment)

Sunday mornings are quiet here. I like it a lot -- the sun rising, birds and insects busying away in the midst of a silent city where almost everyone is asleep or relaxing indoors. Time slows down. The air is still crisp from the night just past, but sunlight slowly warms your skin. Lone walks have a sense of...freedom to them. The absence of human commotion seems to lift off expectations of being and behaviour. I don’t have to be x or y, I can just...exist. And it’s different from late night because in every other way it’s still ordinary -- not eerie or surreal, no sense of sneaking around -- just that of everyone living their lives in a distance at peace.

I felt at peace in that space. Solitary observer, only perceiving, no pressure to participate. A world that exists, silent and unobtrusive, and lets me be, silent and unobtrusive.

Contrast this sharply with any form of human engagement, where the other person is continuously trying to form a model of you, a definition -- trying to predict your behaviour and thereby constricting it. The impersonal world doesn’t care who I am and what I do: if I perform an action it will react accordingly...but the human? it will not only react to the action, it will also react to me being or not being a certain way. The leaves have no investment in my subjectivity. The human does.

I’ve been thinking further about my detachment lately. I’ve always felt that looking in from without grants important perspective but I never really realised the extent to which it seems almost completely absent in everyday thought.

People mostly seem to concentrate on the concrete and the immediate, which makes sense I guess, as that is probably what you’re most likely to encounter in the course of normal life. And it’s good for them too -- the most adaptive and functional people I know tend to be those best able to think and operate strictly within the framework of given systems.

But they seem unable to think outside of them. I present hypotheticals and they apply the principles and values of the status quo to them. I’m like, “no, those are internal to the current system. There’s no reason they’re assumed true in the new one” and I’ve lost them.

Perspective-taking seems painfully lacking. It feels as though people cannot sufficiently step outside of their own brains to truly consider the inside of another’s. They do the same thing -- apply internal properties externally. It goes like, “If I did x thing, I would have done it for these reasons” rather than, “If I was a person with these beliefs and values, I might do x thing for these reasons.”

Watching people have discussions is maddeningly frustrating. It’s like, “oh my god you guys are talking over each other completely. you’re using the same word for very different things” or “this thing y’all have been on for 5 hours now really isn’t the core issue here can we deconstruct this maybe” or other such annoyances that could be solved by literally like 3 seconds of any one person granting credence to anything existing outside their head and realising it’s not necessarily identical to what’s inside.

Idk. Maybe the people I’m currently surrounded by are just unusual. Or, likely, that I’m missing something about how/why this is the case. But either way, it seems in this context that the ability to zoom out, the tendency to seldom if ever “actually be me”...is an invaluable skill to possess. And this is part of why I had long been hesitant to seek treatment for my schizoid and dissociative inclinations -- I’m not entirely sure they’re a bad thing, not sure I’d want to lose them at all.

(the other reason being that I deeply dislike the norms and expectations of society and as such have no real interest being integrated into them)

Nearly every source on the topic suggests that this level of detachment is not normal or healthy, driven by fear/anxiety, and treated with increased embodiment and connection.

This isn’t entirely implausible -- I know that both my senses and my empathy tend to be extreme in sensitivity on the occasional times I encounter them directly -- I am highly prone to being overwhelmed. If your skin is so thin (inexistent) that every touch stings, it only makes sense to step away from the world. Sometimes permanently.

But I hate the way they boil it all down to social bonding things. People are most definitely not at the top of my list of things I might like to be closer to if I could. Nor are they in any way predominant in any of my concerns around overwhelm. But alas. Even my therapists seem intent on relationships.

The envisioned destination is one wherein I would stop seeking understanding (and eventually, meaning) in the greater cosmos and follow the archetypal movie arc -- realise that what I’d been seeking was within me and my life all along -- being understood by another and relishing in my ‘ordinary’ life.

"I want to watch the universe expand. I want to break it into pieces small enough to understand, And put it all back together again In the quiet of my private collection. It feels like an out of body experience— But something gets lost from a safe distance And now I can't put my mind to rest, And I can't help but second guess Living behind this one-way mirror. I'm hypnotized by this anomaly. Such strange uncharted territory— A white flag waves in the dark between my head and my heart. My armor falls apart, As if I could let myself be seen, even deeply known. Like I was already brave enough to let go. And now I want to generously lose This energy that I've been hanging onto so desperately. I finally feel the universe expand— It's hidden in heartbeats, exhales And in the hope of open hands."

Five ~ Sleeping At Last

I left a note for myself to remind me that there isn’t a duality here -- embodied life experience and abstract analytical study aren’t necessarily two separate things. They intertwine, but moreover they emerge from the same core: a desire to learn and understand.

Living in the world shapes me and how I look at things -- making it varied and involved is important to not restrict that. Taking care of myself and my body, maintaining presence...are a part of living truth. Qualia / subjective experience offer a unique source of information that is difficult to acquire elsewhere.

Understanding the world and how it operates is embracing its existence and my place in it. Being fully immersed in study or thought, in a flow state, is a form of being present and honouring the moment. Knowledge transforms us, elevates us, can improve our ways of living.

Practically, of course, this is a lot harder than just formulating theoretical unity between the two. One must prioritise, sacrifice. But the realisation that they are not in inherent conflict allows for greater flexibility and forgiveness -- both are a gain, one must simply pick which is a greater gain for a given situation.

[awfully-sadistic]

{{ Book talk: Friend Request

I finished Friend Request by Laura Marshall today.

I don’t quite remember when I bought it but it was sometime during the beginning of the month of December. Jeff and I went to Fry’s and scanned the book section looking for any more Kay Hooper books, especially her Bishop novels. Anyway, there wasn’t any though I did see Christine Feehan! A few of her books, I saw Dark Fire and one of the Leopard books? I know I went and told Dot about it when I got back.

Here is the summary for this book: 1989. When Louise first notices the new girl, Maria seems to be everything the girls Louise hangs out with aren’t. Authentic. Funny. Brash. Within just a few days, Maria and Louise are on their way to becoming fast friends. 2016. Louise receives a heart-stopping email. Maria Weston wants to be friends on Facebook. Long-buried memories quickly rise to the surface: cruel decisions made and dark secrets kept, the night that would change all their lives forever.

As she tries to piece together exactly what happened that night, Louise discovers there’s more to the story than she ever knew.

I’m going to dive into the book but I’ll keep my thoughts below a cut just in case anyone who stumbles upon this doesn’t want to read on spoilers and stuff. I’ma be spoiling things. That’s the point of these talks. I want to TALK ABOUT THE BOOKS I READ AND SHIT.

First off, I don’t care about Louise. She’s a freaking weak character. She has a group of friends she hung out with in high school. She wasn’t too much of a popular kid but her “best friend”, Sophie, was even though Sophie was the one that seemed to be on the fringes of that popularity herself. Claire and some other chick were the true popular girls and Sophie used to be close with Claire until they started to push her out because you know, Sophie became a third wheel... in a group of girl friends. As you can imagine, it was a cliche catty thing. I didn’t care for that aspect but I guess it showed how terrible girls can be to one another.

Another aspect I should mention is that this author is British and this book, you can tell, is British. I didn’t mind it and although some terms/slang went over my head, it wasn’t hard to tell what things meant through the context and it was very little I ran into this problem as an American reader. Further, what caught my attention about this book was the genre of suspense and mystery. Maybe a little horror. I thought it would be like the horror movies with social media and being online, in book form. The cover looked interesting.

The tagline says “Maria Weston wants to be friends. But Maria Weston’s dead. Isn’t she?” And that’s the sort of premise of the story. Louise gets this friend request from her after many years after high school on Facebook and it’s so strange, as someone who is constantly on the Internet but over the whole “Facebook” phase to hear people talk about it like it’s this... Idk, cool thing to use when in actuality, the people that seem to use Facebook are the older generation and it seems that this is where the author fits the mold. She does hit the nail on the nose where she describes Facebook as this community where people put all of their business on it, but only the storybook and fairy tale aspects what everyone is happy to put on display for their friends and mutual to brag to. I think nearly everyone can attest to their family members using Facebook for things like this. My family does it and I think Dot’s does, too. The author does a good job emulating this in her universe. 

So, Louise gets this friend request from Maria who had been killed back in 1989, during prom night. The mystery about this is whether Maria is alive or not. Louise is a divorced mother by now, having married and had a son with a guy she loved in high school, Sam. But Sam cheated on her and eventually had another kid with the woman he left Louise for. One of the things that bothered me about this aspect is that it is never quite explained what the text message said Louise kept bringing up that caused their marriage to splinter. Things like that aren’t explicitly said but seems to be a very important detail. I get that he cheated on her, she read something that she wasn’t supposed to... or however it was described, but the fact that she never writes that detail in makes it an itch I couldn’t scratch. It bothered me. I wanted to know. I never found out what that stupid text message said.

I do like Louise’s son and the relationship she had with him. Henry was an adorable little child and I adored the way she described some of the scenes between mother and son. It gave me better insight on how to write interaction with children, something I don’t quite run into despite wanting to write interactions for Dot and her children.

Going back to Louise, I found it hard to sympathize with her because like I said before, I didn’t like her. I found that she was weak and always had been since high school. She was making decisions that would have me all “Girl, WHY” and wishing she had done things differently instead of the route she had taken. She wasn’t UNBEARABLE like some female protagonists, but she was... stupid. But I get that she was also fearful. She had been carrying around this “secret” of hers since high school, feeling responsible for Maria’s death.

I felt sorry for Maria since I brought her up. She was a new transfer to Louise’s school and at once was ostracized. The summary made it sound like she and Louise were friends but I felt that hardly happened. What happened was that she and Louise hung out about two major times; one was when Louise had been ditched by Sophie (who went to hang out with one of the popular girls and wasn’t even a real friend to her but Louise wanted so bad to fit in with these girls) at lunch and Louise and Maria hung out. Louise, in a sense, used Maria whenever she couldn’t hang out with Sophie. 

Maria had these rumors surrounding her as soon as she moved to a new school In actuality, she had a stalker. This stalker put out horrid rumors about her that ruined her reputation at her previous school and somehow, this new school. Some kid that went to that school had a cousin that attended this new school and that was how these rumors seemed to persist with Maria. It’s quite sad. She was the type that stood up for herself even though she was being treated horribly. She mouthed off to Sophie for treating her like shit and she was kind to Esther, an old friend of Louise that she ditched in order to hang out with Sophie and the popular kids. Maria was a character that you could have liked, instead, we got weak ass Louise and her inability to stand up for herself. In all fronts. The only time she did something that was strong was 1) when her son went missing and 2) when she was being choked near the end of the book. BUT SHE FAILED ALL THE OTHER TIMES TO BE A STRONG CHARACTER. I guess it’s meant to display a whole, every-day jane or something, but like... c’mon. How many chances do you get to rightfully apologize to someone for being a little shithead in your youth? She’s had so many times to apologize to Esther with how she treated her, explain and come clean with so many things, but she kept thinking of herself. She kept saying she felt bad and sorry and regretted everything she had done and how she treated people but it wasn’t until her ass was cornered and she had no other path to take that she RIGHTFULLY apologized or explained herself to the people she should have in the beginning. I felt if you were really that remorseful, you would have done so earlier.

So I didn’t quite blame Esther for feeling distrustful of Louise as she did throughout their encounters. I just thought Louise was a weak protagonist and hard to relate to. Or perhaps I felt too much sympathy for the characters who were done wrongly and came to resent Louise. Sophie was too fucking ridiculous to outright hate; I knew she was a bitch and didn’t care too much for her. She was awful. But Louise was supposed to be the main character you were supposed to be sympathetic towards. I COULDN’T DO IT, lmao.

I suppose I should talk about what I liked about the book. I mean, I only read it on my spare time--which was anytime I wasn’t doing things on my computer which meant cooking and occasionally sitting down with it. I wasn’t in a hurry to read it until that last stretch where Louise went to her high school reunion. I guess that meant it was sort of like a slow build or that just may be because I had been reading slowly. I wasn’t bothered by it, though. I wasn’t taken out of the story, I was able to dive back into it every time I picked it back up. The author’s writing voice seemed good too considering it was her first published book. It wasn’t quite my favorite type of writing style (the book was written in first person, too) but it wasn’t bad. Not at all. Just different. And there wasn’t too many romantic points in it; the romantic aspects I guess I could count were when Louise would speak about her marriage to Sam. How much they loved each other (how much she loved him because she honestly gave him everything). Sam was... something else. I won’t delve too much into his story; I mean, for as involved in the book as he was, I just... didn’t get too much of an impression of him. I didn’t like Sophie more than him and that’s hilariously weird considering the outcome.

The italic chapters, portions where it was written in someone else’s POV, were confusing and I can’t think... why it would be part of the story. I mean, from what I can remember and gather about those small chapters was that... it was in the past. They were hints, I’m going to assume, but they just felt out of place and distracting to me. I didn’t care of those small chapters.

The hints of BDSM also threw me a little. But that was probably because it was mingled in with abuse. So it wasn’t quite real BDSM practices. Just that... Sam was a piece of shit and there was signs Louise couldn’t see and she mistakenly pegged it as BDSM.

I honestly... don’t know what else to talk about this book now that I’ve expressed the little things that were bothering me and how I overall felt about it. It was a pretty... okay read. Not GREAT but it wasn’t bad either. It wasn’t what I was expecting but I wasn’t quite disappointed with what I got. 

[cozymochi]

Hello again! I wanted to thank you for accepting my request before, I loved it. I was wondering if you have any plans in near future? I really enjoyed the previous comic you did. Anyway never stop being awesome!

YOU’Re weLCome 💙💙

Also yeah I have… P L A N S. I have a lot of them actually, and since I have like… no self-control or sense of organization in terms of mostly my comics, I’ll just dump all of what is in progress NOW. …(and also stuff I’d LIKE to do, cuz I have quite a bit) Though, I have cancelled a lot too due to too much time passing. I think a lot of old Yantan-centric related stuff got shelved despite progress being made cuz they became too dated. 

**IN-PROGRESS: NEAR FUTURE**

[Set in earlier DB] Short Comic showing how Marzi met (and subsequently became infatuated with) Yamcha. It’s probably the farthest along in it’s development cuz it’s technically “finished” just not “COMPLETE”, you dig? I may have bitten off more than I can chew by choosing to make it colored 😂 IT’S HONESTLY A REALLY KIND OF… ESSENTIAL LITTLE STORY THAT I HAVE TO KEEP MYSELF FROM REFERENCING IN ALL KINDS OF STUF because out of context it makes no sense. It’s hard referencing an event that no one (excluding in-universe characters) outside of my own mind has seen. 

^Another Marzi follow up to the above involving a very specific “pls notice me” shenanigan. It’s also kind of important in a sense, and I have to keep myself from referencing that too. Though I think I have once on impulse. There’s a rock. Either way, both of these things sorta answer stuff I feel like i’ve neglected to “elaborate” on in a sense… (tho i dont think anyone is wondering anything as specific as I am really) 

**IN-PROGRESS: FAR FUTURE**

[ahem] A Yamcha Cinderella AU. Yes. That’s happening. It’s not too far along, but I have the whole story already and drew a few pages. It’s pretty much lodged into my system. IT’S BEING MADE……!!!! I DIDN’T STUDY CHINESE STYLE LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS JUST TO NOT USE IT FOR SOMETHING ABSURD. Idk why I’m talking about this AU since I don’t think I’ll be posting it publicly.  

A comic regarding an adventure Yantan has in the snowy north. It’s not really “important” per se, but it’s something I wanna tell anyway. 

**NOT IN PROGRESS BUT LOTS OF PERSONAL CONCEPTS HAVE BEEN DRAWN** 

Some kind of Puarfia AU thing. Whether it’ll be a comic or not is up in the air. I feel like I need a coherent story first. But it’s world is already pretty much built along with histories- unfortunately I’m no writer 😭 Puarfia may be too big an ambition for someone like me. 

That… [little] Mermaid AU thing. I kind of want to make a comic about THAT. Other than the ending that i’m still torn over, that has a pretty linear story in my head. I feel like it COULD work??  And like Puarfia, quite a bit has been built for it’s world- but unlike Puarfia it’s a lot simpler. But, i don’t know yet. 

…proposal…. 

I WANT TO MAKE AN ANIMATIC OF SOME GOOFY THING I THOUGHT ABOUT… what is it??  It’s set somewhere within the first two in-progress comics. Just something dumb really. 

… *coughs* How the heck Yamcha and Marzi like… became a… thing. Although being this deep into this hole makes me reconsider if this even matters anymore 🤔🤔🤔 It FEELS like an important thing but at the same time. Idfk. 

I have a solo Bulla related “reluctant hero” type AU thing I dabbled in over the summer. Although, I don’t know if I’ll continue forward with it due to personal stuff🤔

~~~~~~

And since I’m in the direct line of fire for Hurricane Florence, (at this moment- and i’ll be left on campus too mind you ._.), I’ll probably have a lot of extra free time on my hands if internet cuts out. I wanna make SOMETHING. Or finish something at least. It’d be nice to finish ANYTHING, but that first WIP is the next “complete” thing I WANT finished. IT HAS ALL IT’S PIECES TOGETHER. I don’t want another case of “I started this 2 years ago, but i stopped so here it is I guess” situation like with the Yamcha Wish comic. (Which was also suuuper important, so it sucks I kinda just… dumped it out in the mediocre state it was in.  

Unless I scribble completely new unexpected stuff, in which case I’ll accept those too 😭😭 u can see i am quite varied /s 

But I love AUs. If im inspired enough they can jump RIGHT into in progress rather quickly (I LIVE FOR AUs AND IF I HAD MORE I’D- HNNNNNGH, but most of my AUs tend to come from others suggestions [Mermaid/Cinderella] or me taking something average and warpingg it [Puarfia]) 

BUT YEAH.  C O M I C S…….. A MESSY TIME

[ayankun]

Pseudo-liveblogged reactions to Amazon's Cinderella

I'm not super savvy on modern music, so it took me into the second song to realize that this is a pop opera rather than an original musical.

There are pros and cons to pasting pre-existing songs into your narrative and we will unfortunately not be able to get into the pros today.

My newly acquired "5 min rule" would like to have the protagonist's internal conflict presented to the audience within the first five minutes of runtime. Couple that with Howard Ashman's "I Want" song and you'd kind of expect your protagonist to sing a lil something about what their story is up front. The only character so far to express anything of the sort is Idina Menzel's character.

If this wasn't a well-known fairy tale, I'd have to assume, after the first five minutes, that the evil stepmother is the main protagonist.

They didn't source a song that gives Cinderella a clear objective! They gave her one that describes her ... outlook on life. But we don't know the context for that outlook (I mean, we do, but this movie chose not to tell us, we already happened to know)

We meet her in her basement workshop, which she leaves immediately and starts doing kitchen things, so it's like, we Do Not Know her relationship to the workshop vice her relationship to the kitchen; no effort was made to show one as a joy and one as a burden. Maybe she loves both. Maybe she hates both, and that's why she's singing about having a good attitude (still no answer why love saving the day is relevant in the slightest)

Okay this new character showed up and she asked about his cane and I literally had not seen the cane on screen. It's a visual medium, you gotta show us the important stuff oh my god.

Ok, 8 min in, best I can tell, the conflict is that Cinderella needs to find financial stability because stepmom wants her gone and also her only viable options are getting married off. So stepmom's goal is to marry her off -- I'm wildly confused bc of the conflict I KNOW this story is about; why wouldn't she be invited to the ball if stepmom could get rid of her that way?? I have to guess that she wants the princey income going to one of her own daughters, in which case, her conflict is NOT that she wants to marry Cinderella off!!!!!

Geez, okay, I Do Not Know if these are original songs or not. Cinderella just sang about being famous, and the visuals implied that she wants to do sewing good.

OKAY????? The prince is just an obnoxious frat boy. Guessing that Cinderella either "I can fix him"s or else just absolutely just becomes a fashion designer and doesn't end up with the prince because Feminism.

Okay so Cinderella is super expected to go to the thing, no issues. The ISSUE IS OMG LOLOLOL THAT THE STEPMOM DOESN'T WANT CINDERELLA PARTICIPATING IN THE BLASPHEMY OF FEMALE BUSINESS OWNERSHIP?!?!?!?! (She needs to go to the thing, but she can't wear her self-designed dress for the hype ok sure)

Ok the Queen is my jam

He said "you can't control me" but I heard "you can't troll me"

Oh-hohoho so there's a suddenly Prince's Sister who is competent and will ultimately win the throne bc her brother's useless. So now I'm guessing that the prince is a super red herring who's just wasting screentime.

He's now singing Queen, which is slightly hilarious

(He wants to marry for love, I think. He doesn't want a political marriage. He still doesn't seem suitable for Cinderella, bit she did sing about love earlier so. Maybe they go into business together.)

It's trying to be campy but I'm not feeling it. The camp isn't baked-in.

Also this wasn't the ball. It's still to come. Prince is now leaning into the ball idea as a means of getting to meet specifically Cinderella. Bro she got other priorities.

Ok now prince is pulling a princess jasmine to walk amongst the commoners -- sorry hold on, they hecked up the eyelines SO BAD in this scene. Camera needs to stay on the same side of the two characters OMG textbook basics

So one of the stepsisters has now also expressed an interest in marrying for love. Oh PLEASE can she end up with the prince??? The narrator called her "cray," though, and the prince just had a poorly-blocked conversation about how he isn't into someone with too many bats in the belfry.

OOF the blocking is so bad. First time director?

Sidenote: there IS original music, and it's pretty good. They shoulda gone all out and avoided the misstep of weirdly forced musical numbers.

Ok, act 2 is about getting ready for the ball. How are they gonna pad this? Midpoint is she has her dreams dashed and has to do fairy godmother plan B? Or is that low point and the ball is in Act 3?

Montage of all kind of characters singing about where they are going into Act 2 but it's incomprehensible bc they're just using some pop song that doesn't say anything!!!!!!!!!

Oh. Hm. Mr. McCane is the conflict. That's tidy enough. Cinderella can't go to ball bc she's suddenly been match-maked. (And her fancy dress was ruined for good measure). So this is the midpoint lololol and getting ready for the ball was just the one montage rather than an entire act.

Lol so the fairy godmother is just a caterpillar/butterfly that she saved and there's ZERO reason why he's also magic.

We're on our third musical number in like 10 minutes, they're really pumping em in

I just shouted NO about the bad blocking. 180-degree rule!!!! It's non-negotiable!!!!!!!!!!

Have to say it, there is probably DEFINITELY an audience for this tho

So the second half of act 2 is the ball. Low point will be the midnight time limit on the magic?

Oh shoot I forgot about leaving the glass shoe behind and that whole search shenanigans. That's probably act 3 eh

Ohhhhh geez okay okay now she's met a queen and has to go meet her tomorrow so she can live her fashion designing dreams. But now she has to choose between prince and dreams? She takes prince with her on queen journey, leaving prince sister behind to rule? That'd be fine

Oh I forgot about Mr. McCane conflict. I don't know what she wants so I don't know what existing conflicts matter. She can't get locked in a closet and not be able to try on glass shoe, because she only has until 4PM tomorrow to go on queen journey; Mr. McCane thinks he's going to marry her; the magic ends at midnight but the prince already knows what she looks like and who she really is; the stepmom might find out that she's gone to the ball after all, but she's the prince's favorite so what can stepmom really do??????????

It's very messy

These over the shoulder shots are so awkward, the subject is always smack-dab in the middle of the frame, slightly obscured by the other party and the other half of the frame just totally empty I hate it a lot

Gonna guess this is 1.19:1 aspect ratio, which is ultra wide. Whyyy waste all that lateral real estate???

You can tell this was made for theaters rather than home viewing, though; after watching Zombies 2 a couple more times, I've noticed how the made-for-tv up-close framing isn't really the right way to use that ratio; the faces are way close and we don't get a lot of body shots. Not a problem here, though.

Ok it's midnight and she's fleeing, but other than the fairy godmother saying "RUN," there isn't really a good narrative reason for why she had to flee. Yeah she's unglamored and herself again, but SO WHAT.

Pierce Brosnan and Minnie Driver are killing it tho

Ok so her choice IS still between prince marriage and queen journey. McCane proposal red herring?????

There are NO STAKES to the stepmom doing anything villainous at this point? She wouldn't and she won't? And now she gets a tragic backstory? Idk idk idk bro

GOD the blocking is SO OFFENSIVE TO MY SENSIBILITIES

ohh hmm! Stepmom wants her to do the prince marriage, out of an honest desire for Cinderella to live the best life available to her (and to support the stepfamily)

So Cinderella has chosen queen journey and stepmom is like okay I'm selling you to Mr. McCane. But is Cinderella locked in the basement? She can't just ... go on queen journey?

WHAT ABOUT SHOEVENTURE PLOT?????

LOL STEPMOM ANGRY PIANO SOLO KILL IT IDINA

Please stop framing every face in the center of the shot. Please. I'm f*cking begging you

Ok shoeventure is about to start; it's a narrative piece belonging to the KING'S REDEMPTION ARC AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CINDERELLA'S STORY LOLOL

I MEAN THO. THE SHOE IS SOOOO UNIMPORTANT???? HE LITERALLY KNOWS HER FACE, IT DOES NOT FREAKING MATTER WHO SPECIFICALLY CURRENTLY POSSESSES THE OTHER SHOE

LOL ALSO I FORGOT-- LITERALLY FORGOT-- THAT HER NAME IS ELLA NOT CINDERELLA

So they're not going to tackle the whole thing where the queen journey queen doesn't care that Ella's has a different fave today from yesterday?

Ok and the queen is leaving on her journey an hour after she was to meet with Ella, so Ella's going to go with her but first she's going to the castle and be present at a whole royal event, and probably a musical number and then make it back to the docks in time? Sure ok.

Ye here's the number. Has 0% relevance to either the current events or any thing that's happened in this movie

Oh I have no comment on the dances, I haven't been compelled enough to really pay attention to any

Nice that she gets a lil moment of connection w/ stepmom. Don't know if it was earned, but it was sweet

Love will save the day reprise :| I mean ... I guess if he weren't out looking for her, she would have missed her appointment probably ... otherwise.........

Ok, it was fine/ not for me, peace out lololololol

EDIT: I quoted the aspect ratio as 1.19:1 but since I'm not good with numbers that's totally wrong. (I think that's the almost-square ratio that The Lighthouse used.) I just checked and both Cinderella and ZOMBIES 2 are 2.39:1, so at least I was correct in identifying that they were the same.

Also, looked up Kay Cannon and was unfortunately also correct in assuming she was a new director. Thinking on it now, it feels like maybe it wasn't storyboarding and/or shooting each scene was a process of "Let's just get coverage so we have options in post." There's just a real lack of not just intent behind shot composition and reason for cutting and the specific shot cut to, but mostly coherence; scenes are stitched together like Frankenstein's monster, I felt a visceral uncanny valley discomfort while watching.

I feel bad, no one felt they could point this out to her, either in pre-production or on set?? Unless she was surrounded by equally green staff, or yes-men who didn't really care about the end product that was going to have their names attached to it.

[adelindschade]

So since in my previous post I touched on some of the bullshit my dad put us through, I’m going to reiterate some of our last ‘transactions’ before that bridge was burned - one of the many pivotal awakenings I needed to throw those rose colored glasses away. By then I had taken them off and started seeing shit differently but this moment was probably one of the few that prompted me to stop giving a fuck and call it quits for good.

By this point, dad and I are in a rough patch. I gave him an ultimatum about a year from now - right before thanksgiving - to stay off mom, she wasn’t in a position to be losing income for child support when custody was 50/50, etch. - and he’d rather lay into me about not knowing my place (despite me being a 22 YO independent adult) and gaslighting me about not knowing the full situation (bullshit). So we’re not on speaking terms.

I’ll let you know now - family or not, if you piss me, I’m done. I quit. There ain’t no tantrums. There aren’t conversations. After that last text and you ain’t wit the program, I’m duecing out. Peace sign, have good life, motherfucker, I’m out. Adios. Fuck off forever. I had my last straw and I stopped talking altogether. It was mutual. No one was lifting a finger to initiate any sort of discussion after that debacle. .

I ain’t the person who sends holiday or birthday texts. Nah. When I’m done, it’s cold turkey. I cut it off in an instant and I don’t look back. None of this “I’m always here” bullshit or “call me if you have a change of heart”. Nah, fam. Not even with my ex-bestie. She was all about that life after our blow out but I said what I said, I meant it, and I’m not turning back on my words just to re-engage an awkward & inevitably change friendship. That bridge was incinerated and same goes for my Dad.

Also - blocking - I’m all about that life. None of that ‘weak’ shit excuse. I don’t want to be hearing from you. I don’t want to be seeing shit from or about you. I don’t want you creeping on my shit either so your nosy ass can talk about something to your friends. Nah. We’s dead to each other. I blocked a hella ton of people because they nosy AF and messy and I’m not going to enable that shit. My profile is private, too, so they can’t hire their friends to peep for them either. Communication is low so mutual friends or family can’t be talking shit if I don’t have anything to say about the matter. I stay in my fucking lane, you bet your ass you ought to do the same. I ain’t gonna make it easy for you to weave in between the lines so don’t even bother.

I also learned that if people are a) bitching but b) not blocking - that door is still open for more bullshit. That girlfriend of yours talking shit about her on-and-off ex for a billion reasons but still refusing to block his ass? You bet they’re going to be back together by the end of the week. It’s inevitable. They ain’t ready to cut that cord.

My dad was one of those people. His (last I heard, ex) GF was a piece of work. So many stories were born from that messy relationship but he wasn’t dumb AF and continued to justify or make excuses as to why he wanted to work on it. At the end of the day, he made it known he valued her over his own kids, and that was that. He bankrupted himself to support her even though she already had income coming in three different ways and he used that excuse to make all these expectations that were never realized.

This is semi-important. All of this ties together.

When I cut contact, I cut all of it. No birthday text, no happy father’s day text, none of that. I was a making a point and it struck a nerve. He went through mom to tell me I needed to bounce TF off his phone plan (as if I wasn’t paying my portion?? which I learned was MORE than what I actually owed!!). Hmm. Ironic. I was asking him for months to cut me off his plan because he was the account owner and he had to give the approval but all he did was give BS excuses to wait or that I wasn’t financially ready to take on another burden (What?? I was meticulous about my budget and planned ahead for it! I realize now it was because I was paying for part of not just my plan but his, too - hmm). So suddenly now, I’m an ungrateful mooch and need to bounce ASAP.

Luckily I anticipated this but unfortunately had to wait for his go ahead. Because no matter how times I attempted to do it, they still needed certain information only he could give, and it was infuriating that I couldn’t do shit unless he went ahead from HIS account to release the line.

Now, let me input this: I love my phone. It’s old (4+ years) but it works, it functions, and it still in pretty condition because I forked out a shit ton of money for a grade A case that lived up to its reputation (otterbox FTW). So, the only thing I was (or should have been) paying for was just the plan and my ass was grandfathered in so I wasn’t paying for shit for unlimited. However, I was paying twice that amount until this moment. My upgrade was never used because I didn’t need one - it was only for an emergency just in case some shit happened to my phone. I didn’t ever want a new one because the one I had (and still do) does everything I need it to. (Shout out to Samsung!)

Dad, however, was the exact opposite. Constantly upgraded because he HAD to have the new iPhone after it’s release (same applies to my brother which he always catered to) and stealing everyone’s upgrades while still forking out money for the phone he just ditched.

So after days in finagling for the fucking information I needed to just finish the job, he finally makes me the account manager to just take care of it. First it was, oh I haven’t paid the bill yet so I still owe x amount before they make any account change (abet lowkey suggesting I take care of the $400+ invoice - TF I will! Hell no! I’m not the one to be tried today - fuck that noise!) Then it was - oh, well, uh, I couldn’t cover the total so wait until next week so I have the entire bill take care of...

Here’s what went down:

This man never, ever paid the bill in full. He had late fee after late free applied because he was cutting corners.

On top of that, he was constantly adding new devices  - like a new set of Dre Beat wireless headphones - hmm - while apparently not having enough to cover the bill. That’s some piss poor management right there.

Here’s the bonus:

I finally ask the rep to take me off. Wait, there’s a new charge. What? On my line? Repeat that, please??

This man used MY line, MY UPGRADE, while the account still under his name to buy a brand new $1100 iPhone - in payment plans no less! So either someone pays the difference (which is pretty much the whole thing) before I can ever transfer my line to an independent one or - at this point - my mind stopped listening because I was fuming.

Wanna guess where, or rather who, that phone went to? Take a guess - it’s pretty easy - if you thought, hmm, Dad, so did I - but no, it went to his pretty little neurotic piece of a GF. *I learned this later on from my brother who was lamenting about how she got the phone and not him (after his took a nasty fall & cracked the screen).

Folks, I don’t remember how TF I did without forking over money but I did - I got my ass off the plan within a week of the original message, kept my beloved phone (which he can pry from my cold, dead hands) and my number with a manageable plan.

Now, let me tell you, I did not block my dad. My number is still the same as always because it’s damn near connected to everything in my name. I couldn’t bother with a number change because too much inconvenience. I sent him an e-mail saying the deed was done (literally 5 words or less) and he never replied back - that was that.

Fast forward about.... rounded, a couple months. Karma is beautifully served and she kicks his ass to the curb after mooching off what she could without having to do the same. (He’s still a dick and probably did some shit to deserve the restraining order). He crawls back to my mom looking for pity. She reminds him said-ex-GF is not worth it and primarily one of the reasons why he’s estranged with his eldest (me!).

He has the audacity to say the following - oh, I was going to ask her eventually if she wanted to get coffee. (Haha! Hell no! As if I’d be anywhere in the same zip code as this man! I ain’t gonna be trapped listening to his woe-is-me bullshit. Fuck that!)

Mom shakes her head - she knows me well enough. That ain’t gonna fly. She’s not going to respond to that.

He probably scratched his head - what should I do? (*Uh, dumbass, I literally wrote you an e-mail with plain-as-day instructions. First step, apologize, second step, acknowledge your wrong doings, third step, make an vocal and actual effort to fix x amount of issues which I’ve bulleted! Look at your Goddamn archives!)

Mom literally says - show an effort.

He replies - okay... is her number the same??

Bruh. Bruuhh.

At this point, it’s just comedy. I can’t make this shit up.

I’ve never blocked this man. I never changed my number. If he asked, idk, my brother?? He’d confirm - yeah, it’s still the same.

Now under this context, which my mother forewarned me about, he sends me a BS text - oh, thinking about you, hoping you’re doing well, text me, love ya.

What bullshit. Mind you, had his (ex) GF not kicked him to the curb, he’d still be at her side, and I’d still be in exile - so no - not happening. You made your bed, lie in it. See - I look at the bigger picture - it helps with retrospect.

Mark to present: Mom is now on the train which she’s almost always finds her way back on - forgive and forget! He’s your father? Yadda-yadda - you know the naive shit that gets her into trouble because she forgives wayyy too easily the shit no one should put up with. (*I’m all about the resent-and-remember and boii has it served me good).

Mom - has your father texted you yet? He told me he tried again. (As per use, telling one thing, doing another - actions ain’t lining up, pops. Typical).

My inbox: void of any such message(s).

Me - Nope! (proceeds to monologue about his douchebaggery and my intolerance for such antics and how forgiveness is absolutely out of the question.)

Mother  - who is very passive - immediately weans off the topic. She’s the soft spoken but persistent type. (I’m the opposite. I’m the ‘cuss your ass out’ + end of fucking discussion type).

I see things for how they are and I’m ain’t about that bullshit. I know how things operate and I’m not playing the fool this time.

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

So I saw your comment about xue/xiao on this post about cheng/xian and it occurred to me that's even ironic how xy, in his own twisted way of seeing things and according to wwx's deductions, killed Chang Ping bc he "offended" xxc when turning his back on him while jc, on the other hand, went killing people who reminded him of wwx/just in case they had a connection to wwx. And I'm not saying xy is any more right, he is that effed up (and the dissonance is so shocking too, as if it wasn't HIS fault in the first place, that. I'm sorry. but I find it amazing... that's what xy is in the end) but still if you're going to make a parallel with these two, I have to say that: it says a lot that xy, the psycho murderer, kills someone bc, again, in his twisted head he offended "the object of his affection" but jc, tsundere misunderstood grape, kills people bc he relates them to "the person of his affections".

Anyways, that aside but also related to something you mentioned about they not wanting the tragedy of Yi City... You hit the nail on the head. Look, ngl, I personally find annoying of course when people like that anon that also mentions xue/xiao talks about how horrid and how disturbed she finds people like them. I think it's unnecessary bc it's not even like this is about them but jc so why bring them out of nowhere to say such things? And sorry for the tmi but allow me to really make clear that I've never had not even a close to an abusive rs in my life so I hope people finally get that we know to separate reality from fiction and I guess the fact we aren't triggered by it it's also a sign some of us luckily can say irl we've never allowed any dangerous bs from another person.

ANYWAYS, sorry I digress. Back to the point, the truth is that while I find unnecessary to say things like that when the main theme isn't even them, I do understand if some people feel uncomfortable by it, I just believe there are certain fandom etiquettes and it's not the same to talk about how of a horrible person xy is, bc he is, than shading people for being in their corner shipping something problematic. And what's more important about xue/xiao shippers is that so far, in my experience, we are quite "content" with the result? We accept this is a tragic effed up story and we accept it couldn't end well. We aren't, idk, blaming wang/xian for what happens to xy when he and he alone dug his own grave, duh. We like it bc of its tragedy. And I think the best proof is that there isn't as much fix-it fics like people who maybe think this is about being apologists would believe. From time time of course we need some crack, some unrealistic result, some comedy even lol... but I think the reason our ship work for us is bc we like it bc of it is and not bc we project ourselves. Also, I thank God never saw MXTX being attacked by xy stans... I don't doubt there must be some cringey stans like there are everywhere but I'm sure they're a small number. I actually find amusing MXTX being like "why do you ship those, idgi??" 😂 but above all, I respect her bc it's her work. This is not about being a boot licker, I believe it's ok to have your opinions too and not necessarily agree with the author... Too bad that all the MXTX antis I saw are gross about her and they're far from just giving criticism. They're plain bitter haters. It's not like it personally affects me and as if she doesn't have the right to have her own opinions on her story and own characters just bc I happen to ship something I KNOW it's not canon, ffs... In any case we can agree to disagree bc it's also my right to ~romanticise~ whatever I want as long as it's fictional. All in all, I'm grateful she created this story that hooked and these characters I learned to love...

Sorry if this became long and if it's all over the place 😅 but I just couldn't help myself and wanted to bring some points on this whole matter...

So I will break down my comments point by point anon!

On the point of Xue Yang, I find him fascinating along with his relationship concerning Xiao Xingchen. They had built up a relationship on so many lies, and lived fairly happily in that all while Xue Yang was unable to parse out what his animosity was towards Xiao Xingchen his love for him, and his idea of honoring this same person. It is just a mess of a relationship with so much that can't actually be described because even the characters can't separate exactly what is going on there aside from the pain Xue Yang caused because he just does not understand kindness and empathy in a significant way that could have saved himself. It is a gorgeous plot point and awful bond. It's also just at the cusp of Xue Yang being in denial admitting that he DOES miss Xiao Xingchen and his build up of this unconscious guilt for having killed someone he learned to love and know. Especially next to Jin Guangyao who doesn't have this guilt but is very good at speaking like he is, and Jiang Cheng who is not regretful for what he did to Wei Wuxian.

On the topic of ship shit talk: I have no bone to throw here as a defense. I shit talk chengx!an and plenty of pairings with mutuals and friends as a vent, because I find ships ridiculous as much as others. Everyone in my eyes can do as they want, say what they want in terms of fandom made content. It's there in all it's non-canonical glory to roast or praise on all ends. I think the issue here in regards to all of this is the conflation of fanon being made to seem like actual canon and the line of where personal tastes needs to be made apparent. MXTX isn't big on shipping outside of her main pairs, I'm the same with mine for OC's and I am very very picky in regards to this, but fans are gonna fan and Rule 34 is there no matter what. Fandom curating is always the answer if certain pairs get to you that badly. I also think there is a fine line with accusations of romanticizing non-canon pairs and it's place in a real life context towards others individuals as I think morbid material has it's place to be explored safely within literature and entertainment without pearl clutching or holier than though attitudes especially prevalent in English/Western fandom.

People get far too invested within the fandom headcanon space and a lot of vitriol pours out from that. It's a double-edged sword especially claiming to love something from this while condemning a multitude of people (mostly always chinese mainland fans, or other LGBT+ people who do not share the same self-flagellation attitude towards an entertainment piece). Self-flagellation is hypocrisy in my eyes and just because some people tend to make a very loud note of this, does not make them morally superior in sharing the same content as everyone else no matter how they do this.

[isaacathom]

i think the basic idea is that while Whatsit Org have a group of core employees, theyre actually mostly a sponsor. their staff are 90% office workers, doing paperwork and arranging meetings and monetary transfers from the Org to small subsidiary groups. for instance, Jun Zhang is sponsored by the Org to provide medical assistance to the eastern part of the region, which is otherwise cut off from good medical care. they provided staff, facilities, all that, and all Jun had to do in return was basically include their logo on his doctors uniform. of course Jun would later go on to become part of Team Whatsit, and this isnt actually a one off incident! many of the groups sponsored by the Org have their high ranking members become absorbed into the villainous team, with the idea being that they can continue to get work by causing that work to appear. thats certainly how more profit driven leaders join the group. Jun, in that case, is the exception, as he was forced to join after the Team threatened to hurt his wife and at the time infant daughter. he basically joined in order to keep the east mostly safe, hence his high status in the Team.

so then how does the Org remain profitable? well, its mostly through the use of the money stolen using the Team, but also from cuts taken from their subsidiaries. and then probably some general safety products sold either as themselves or through another subsidiary, like a pokeball manufacturer who makes really specific pokeballs, or Ride Gear, shit like that.

theres also the fact that Dante has $$$ and likely pitched in part of the set up fee. Dante also likely, publicly, set up the Org as its CEO and later retired, to be replaced with the character [CEO], who doesnt have a name yet. this was done so that Dante could fade back into obscurity as an eccentric philanthropic rich man who noone scrutinised, thus allowing him to take a more hands on approach to the back end. his retirement MIGHT also align with the failed raid on the Team (the one where Seren got left behind and where like, in total, two grunts were caught and a bunch of shit was destroyed before it could be confiscated). the idea THERE being that in the wake of his failure to capture Team Whatsit, he resigned, appointing [CEO] who would then seem to turn the company around by successfully capturing a few key members of the Team. Dante would fade back and simply become a benefactor, donating money but not having a say in the everyday running of the company any longer. of course, WE know that Dante is still running it from behind the scenes, though [CEO] has a LOT of autonomy. Dante is more on the broad concept, she’s the one who does the specific things. its important that shes second in command and essentially his equal, as opposed to wholly subordinate with none of her own agency. if nothing else as a point of comparison to Rhia, who is clearly subordinate to most of Whatsit and has minimal ability to be her own agent within the group.

idk, something LIKE that. though, perhaps instead of sponsoring groups, it is just straight up subsidiaries. so instead of Jun being unrelated to the org beyond them funding him, he actually joined the Org as a doctor and was then given a role as like, Head Boy when they expanded the medical back east, since he was the champion of that idea. so then the profit remains internal and they get all of it. i think i prefer that. they can all have separate names, like each hospital they have would have their own names based on region and culture, but all of them as Whatsit Org. makes Jun being a part of Team Whatsit make a little more sense, since he was more closely linked to the Org initially.

then, on Jun more. his wife Bronwyn definitely knows. he would have confided very depressingly in her when he’d been coerced and was really concerned, rambling about how they were in danger. she basically kept him grounded and told him to stick to his morals despite everything. She has his support, even if she doesnt approve of Team Whatsit. she supports Jun in all of it, and its probably her (perhaps naive) hope that he can reform the group from the inside. But she knows hes a good man, a doctor not a killer, so she doesnt worry about him actually causing harm to others directly. Lyndelle is probably actually completely aware of her father being in Team Whatsit, despite Jun and Bronwyn (and later Rhia) conspiring to keep that a secret. whether she found out before or after Rhia came into her life, not sure, but the news article about Seren’s disappearance paired with the failed raid and her fathers claim that he ‘found her injured outside’ suggests to her that her father is definitely involved. she basically pieces it all together. Jun and Bronwyn dont know that she knows. whether Rhia does is.... questionable. especially since its highly likely Lyndelle then later pieces together that Rhia is now part of the group too, after she and Jun seem to have a random falling out related to how Rhia uses her time that, without context, seemed absolutely Bizarre. with the context Lyndelle has gleaned from the years, the falling out is about Jun being furious that Rhia joined Team Whatsit in order to alleviate his debt to them (for the whole Legal Shit they pulled for Seren/Rhia). she’s got it in the bag. if Rhia DOES know that Lyndelle knows, it would need to have been prior to Rhia joining herself, because then Lyndelle would not have confided. but Rhia could also have figured out that Lyndelle knows just, in general, yknow? in reality noone knows for absolute certain who knows what. for instance, Bronwyn MAY not know that Rhia is also in Team Whatsit, depending on who she interpreted the aforementioned falling out about Rhia’s free time. if she connected the dots like Lyndelle likely did, then Bronwyn is fully aware. she could have also asked Jun about it privately. so Bronwyn PROBABLY knows, but shes not gonna talk about it. Lyndelle probably thinks the entire family is with Team Whatsit and from this, resolves to join Whatsit Org in order to combat Team Whatsit, and i guess by extension save her family? her goals are a little unclear from then on but she wants to stop them being a part. ironically and blissfully unaware that she herself is now technically part of Team Whatsit while she trains as a doctor. shh, dont tell her.

honestly its all a mess lol